Compare methods

	Agrifood Value Chain Analysis	Gross Margin Analysis
Field	Food Agriculture Studies	Food Agriculture Studies
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	2001	1979
Originator	Raphael Kaplinsky & Mike Morris	C. S. Barnard & J. S. Nix (farm planning tradition)
Type	Field-based value-chain mapping and analysis pipeline	Enterprise margin pipeline (output minus variable costs)
Seminal source	Kaplinsky, R., & Morris, M. (2001). A Handbook for Value Chain Research. Prepared for the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Brighton: Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex.	Barnard, C. S., & Nix, J. S. (1979). Farm Planning and Control (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9780521296045
Aliases	Agricultural Value Chain Analysis, Food Value Chain Mapping, Commodity Chain Analysis (Agrifood), Value Chain Governance Analysis	Enterprise Gross Margin, Gross Margin Budgeting, Contribution Margin Analysis (Farm), Variable-Cost Margin Analysis
Related	3	3
Summary	Agrifood value chain analysis traces a food product through the full sequence of value-adding activities — from input supply and farming through processing, trade, and retail to the final consumer — and asks how value, costs, and power are distributed along that chain and where smallholders and processors can capture more. The method follows Kaplinsky and Morris's influential Handbook for Value Chain Research, which provides the practical apparatus for mapping a chain, quantifying flows and margins, and analysing governance and upgrading. Gereffi, Humphrey, and Sturgeon's theory of global value chain governance supplies the lens for understanding who coordinates the chain and how that coordination shapes the prospects for upgrading.	Gross margin analysis is the workhorse of farm management planning: for each enterprise on a farm it computes the gross margin — gross output minus the variable costs directly attributable to that enterprise — usually expressed per hectare, per head, or per activity unit. Rooted in the British farm-planning tradition of Barnard and Nix and a fixture of standard farm management texts, the gross margin deliberately stops short of fixed and overhead costs. That makes it the natural currency for comparing enterprises and planning the farm: because fixed costs are largely common to all enterprises in the short run, ranking and combining enterprises by their gross margins per unit of the scarce resource is the quickest route to a more profitable farm plan.